Utah has busiest ski season ever in 20/21 despite Covid

[RJS]

I would imagine that most geographies had close to their busiest seasons ever this season in spite of, or perhaps because of, Covid.

I just listened to the episode of the Storm Skiing Journal where Stuart interviews the founder of the Indy Pass (the episode came out at the end of April), and he mentioned that Indy Pass skier visits jumped from roughly 8,500 to 96,000 from last season to this season! And it sounds like while that's mostly due to selling more passes, people also used their Indy Passes more (more redemptions per skier). He also mentioned that multiple ski areas on the pass said that they hit records for skier visits this season.

Also, I agree with @David Chaus about how Crystal handled the pandemic, I believe they did a very good job despite a few hiccups early on. I was especially impressed that they opened when there was snow, and then stayed open for bonus weekends through last weekend. In some ways I am going to miss the reservation system next season only because there will be the fear that I won't have a parking spot if I get there "late" (i.e., after 7:30am on weekends or powder days), whereas days when I had a reservation I had no problem finding parking.

I will be really curious to see what happens to skier visits next season. How much of the increased interest in skiing will carry over? Will people move on to other activities now that it will be safe for them to do so? Or will people who took up skiing, or did more skiing, keep doing so? My parents didn't do their annual trip to Utah this season, so they're planning on making up for it by taking two trips out west next year, which is one more trip than usual.

 

[RJS]

One other thought: typically, snowfall is a major predictor for skier visits. For much of the season, some of the biggest markets like Utah and Colorado had below normal snowfall. I wonder if skier visits would actually have been even greater, to the extent that reservation systems allowed it, had it been a more typical year as far as snowfall goes?

 

[justaute]

It is cooking here in Utah, and much of the west. I think snow for next season has been cancelled -- TIC.

 

[Jim Kenney]

Two comments, all anecdotal from a tourist who skied 40+ days over the last half of the 2021 season in Utah,
1. I didn't start skiing Utah regularly this winter until Feb 19 and I mostly concentrated on Snowbird. From that point until closing on May 16 I did not really notice exceptionally huge numbers of people. I guess I missed the early part of the season where the crowds and conditions were the worst? Maybe a lot of IKONers had used up their LCC days by the time I got there? t Snowbird it seemed like the parking reservation system sort of capped the crowds in Feb and March. By the time they lifted the parking reservation system later in March the crowds were on the downswing anyway. I suppose I could say that weekdays were a little busier than a normal winter, and perhaps over the course of a full season that could add up to more visits than a typical season where weekdays are lighter and weekends are much busier??
2. People told me that prior to Feb 19 a lot of the snow storms that came through the Wasatch occurred on Fridays which made the following Saturdays and Sundays quite busy.

 

[Pat AKA mustski]

I think that there wasn't much other type of traveling available. Folks who might normally have flown to tropical climes for mid winter vacations, didn't have that option available. Lots of folks still had money, were suffering from 'cabin fever,' and wanted to travel. Skiing was available over most of the country without any quarantine requirements. Additionally, it was relatively "safe" due to the outside nature of the activity. Couple that with the fact that most families were pretty much "home schooling" anyway and traveling was the natural outcome. I would be interested to see if profits were up or down though. Most of the resorts were closed to indoor eating and drinking which I am pretty sure is a good portion of their profits. STRs had a banner year in Big Bear.